









■» o 













' • «* ^ 





.s^"-. 









♦ A^ 



W 













^^ ^T^ 










-^ ..- / \*^^\/.. %.-•.■ 



. //i:^.> ./\.i^>X .//i.^.>. >*\.^ 



V. 






A^ tit * 





AN E 



VTION 



POWER AIO DOT! OF THE GO\'ERfilllGPOW[H 

OF THIS NATION 

IN THE FUESENT CKISIS. 



BY HON. JOHN C. CHAMPLIN. 



The time has now come, when the dan- 
gers which menace a dissolution of the 
Union, make it the duty of every citizen 
to contribute whatsoever is in his power to- 
wards averting that catastrophe. In the 
discharge of my part of that duty, I pro- 
pose to present to my fellow citizens, ac 
cording to the best of my ability, a state- 
ment of the questions with which, upon 
that subject, they uc^ stand confronted ; 
and of the duties and ^^emedies which the 
crisis demands. 

In order to comprehend our position 
and duties, it is necessary to possess our- 
seWes of a clear understanding of the na- 
ture and origin of those causes which are 
now threatening the Union with destruc- 
tion. 

In my judgment they are not of a poli- 
tical character. Nothing that the govern- 
ment of the United States has ever done, 
or has failed to do; nothing that they are 
now invoked to do, or to forbear from do- 
ing, has brought us into the presence of 
the dangers that confront us. 

It would be a useless waste of time and 
argument to examine all the political 
questions that have been assigned as the 
causes of our present position, and demon- 
strate that they are not so. Two, and 
those the most prominent, will suffice. — 
The non-execution of the fugitive slave 
law is one; the omission of Congress to 
pass a law ibr introducing and upholding 
slavery in the Territories of the United 
States is another. 

The non-execution of the fugitive slave 
law! Eemembering that this law — the 
1850 part of it — is conceived in terms of 
insult and contumely towards the people 
among whom it was to operate, or is be- 
lieved by them to be so — what law, State 
or National, North or South, was ever exe- 



cuted with equal fidelity ? Have the la^rs 
against the slave trade been equally so ? — 
Has that other provision of the Constitu- 
tion, that citizens of each Stato shall bo 
entitled to all the privileges of citizens of 
the several States been executed at all? 
and has it not been long and constantly 
violated by the people, if not the States of 
the South, in their confiscations of the 
property, in their imprisonments, exiles, 
and murders of citizens of tho North? — 
The fugitive slave law of 1850 has been in 
operation ten years. Can any man point 
out ten cases — an average of one a year — 
in which its execution has been successful- 
ly resisted — tho resistance remaining un- 
punished? Is it not true, that in every 
State, in every year, the laws against mur- 
der have been violated with an impunity 
greater than the impunity attending the 
execution of the fugitive slave law in ten 
years ? Yet the law for the punishment 
of murder is one ordained by tho people 
of the States themselves, for the protec- 
tion of their own lives, and is in perfect 
harmony with their feelings and senti- 
ments. The other is a law which they 
justly regard as insolent in its provisions, 
and in the objects it seeks to accomplish, 
abhorrent to their feelings. And yet this 
law has been executed by Nortliern magis- 
trates and Northern juries, with equal, 
probably greater, fidelity than the other. 
Wherefore? Let no man niiotako the 
reason. Let every man pause I'^ng, and 
ponder well, before he answer ' ■ *br.t 
answer there is a moral an( ' :- 

nificance, tkat lies at the fou > ■ . ail 

1 the affairs of men. Looking revt really at 
the Constitution Avhich his fathers made, 
the Northern citizen sees theve, \\ thisbe- 
! half, his Duty pointed out. And looking 
I to the circumstances under which this du- 



ty was enj®ined, he sees that its perform- 
ance is commanded by that other senti- 
ment without which States cannot exist — 
the sentiment of Honor. If these things 
are true, and I believe their truth cannot 
be mipugned, let no man hereafter say 
that the magistrates, the juries, the peo- 
ple of the Xorth have failed in tho per- 
formance of a duty, however painful, or 
have not evinced, in its performance, that 
to them honor was a sentiment that out- 
weighed the care and preservation of life. 
And now, let the position of the other 
question be examined — the omission by 
Congress to pass a law establishing and 
maintaining slavery in the Territories— 
and it will equally be found that tuat is 
not the cause of the threatened disunion. 
The POWER and the duty of Congress in 
this regard is not now to be argued. That 
question has been submitted to the Ameri- 
can People, and their verdict thereon 
stands recorded. By that verdict it stands 
established that Congress possess that 
power, but that no political necessity im- 
poses the duty, or declares the justice of 
exercising it. Against the justice and po- 
licy of exercising that power, stand the 
voices of all those who voted for the Re- 
pubhcan candidate for President, and 
these constitute a majority of the electoral 
vote, and a majority of the States of the 
Union. With these are joined, also, the 
voices of all those who voted for Mr. 
Douglas; and these joined with the other, 
constitute a majority of the people of the i 
United States. That verdict will not be ' 
reversed, and cannot be resisted without ' 
destroymg the principles upon which Re- 
publican Governments are founded. Nov 
is there any just ground to desire its re- 
versal on the part of any portion of the 
people, or any one or more of the States 
of the Union, even if its reversal could be 
attained without a sacrifice of either prin- 
ciple or expediency. For all men knoAv 
that the status of the Territories of Kansas, 
Washington, and Nebraska, is already de- 
termined, beyond the power of any legis- 
lation by Congress to modify or alter itT — 
And all men know, or may know, why it is 
so. It is not the legi.-;lation of Congress 
that secures freedom, or fastens slavery 
upon a Territory, but the character of the 
emigration which establishes its settle- 
ment. Since the year 1850, there has been 
but one Territory, present or prospective, 
in rcga.-d to which the character of that 
emigration _?ould be doubtful. That Ter- 
ritory was Kansas. With two slave States 
interposed between its frontier and that of 
freedom; with a soil and climate best 
adapted, of any portion of the public do- 






main, to tho productiveness ef skvfe labor, 
it seemed that here, indeed, the interests 
of slavery might be maintained. But in 
spite of the legislation of Congress — ^in 
spite of whatsoever else there is that 
patriotism would wish to blot from the 
page of history, Kansas is free. Utah and 
New_ Mexico, with slavery sanctioned by 
Territorial Legislative enactments, are not 
yet slave States. Examine their climate, 
soil, and productions — flanked by the free 
State ©f California on one frontier, and the 
free State of Kansas on the other — is it 
doubtful whether they will ever become 
so? These questions are already settled, 
then, by laws supeuior to those of Con- 
gressional enactment, or the dictum of 
whatsoever judicial tribunal. No political 
action of the government, in this behalf, 
remains to be exerted, either in the inte- 
rest of slavery or in the interest of free- 
dom. ^ And now, where is the pretence for 
disunion, in respect either to slave code 
enactment, or the insuflScient execution of 
the fugitive slave law ? Is it needful, after 
this, to examine personal liberty bills, that 
never yet interposed to prevent the return 
of a single slave to his master ? Yes, in 
the interest of slavery I will say, that if 
they interpose between the master and his 
right to recapture his slave, they are void, 
and therefore harmless ; and in the inte- 
rest of freedom 1 have a right to say, that 
while no State can lawfully resist the re- 
caption of a fugitive slave, whether by the 
master's own right arm, or with the bor- 
rowed arm of the general government, yet 
each sovereign State has a right to inspect 
the proceedings under which that recap- 
tion is effected, and equally so, whether 
the recaption is made by the master in 
person, by his agent under seal, or his at- 
torney, the Government of the United 
States, in right of the master. To that ex- 
tent personal liberty laws are within the 
powers of the several States, and enjoined 
by the duty they owe to every person 
found upon their soil — that of personal 
protection against unlawful aggression. 

And now, who does not see'that it is not 
from political grievances, either real or 
supposed, that the threats of disunion 
spring ? Is it not manifest, that if every 
personal liberty bill was repealed — every 
fugitive slave that escapes returned or paid 
for — a code establishing and protecting 
slavery in every Territory of the United 
States was enacted — reserving to the Ter- 
ritories the right of admission as free or 
slave_ States, as they might desire — that 
the rights and condition of the slave States 
in that regard, would remain substantially 
the same as they now are ? A slave paid 



for once a year — a few murders and rob- 
beries in the Territories, beyond what 
would otherwise happen — these are about 
the sum of the positive results that would 
be derived by the South, from granting the 
enactment of these measures. 

The effect of yielding to these demands 
on the part of the Morth, is entirely a dif- 
ferent question. — Happily, that is a ques- 
tion which it is not needful to discuss. 

Odious as the fugitive slave laAv is, the 
Republican party have never proposed to 
repeal or impair it. The eminent citizen 
whom they have elevated to the Presi- 
dential office, has declared that it was the 
duty of the President to execute it. lie 
also will declare, in apt and proper time, 
perhaps, that there are some other laws of 
the United States, operating vipon white 
men (but the operation of which has not 
been invoked since the celebrated trial in 
Richmond, Virginia, forty years ago, or 
more) which it may become his duty to 
execute upon than, as well as this law upon 
the black "person." 

With the existing legislation in respect 
to the Territories, the Republican party 
have not the present power to interfere. — 
They have never proposed any substantial 
interference with it, if they had the power, 
so far as I know. Whatever right the 
southern planter now has, to go into any 
of the Territories of the United States 
with his slaves, and to hold them in slave- 
ry there, the Republican party do not pro- 
pose to deprive him of. They claim, indeed, 
the right to do so whenever they have the 
needful majority in Congress; but con- 
scious that it is a barren right, they have 
never proposed so far as I know, to 'exer- 
cise it. 

But there is one thing in this regard 
that they do propose to do. They do pro- 
pose, as soon as they acquire the power, 
that the course of peaceful emigration, 
both by the planter and the free settler, 
shall not be interfered with, by violence 
or intimidation from any quarter. They 
intend, as soon as they acquire the powei', 
to protect every settler in the Territories, 
in his person, in his property, and in the 
exercise of all his rightful franchises. As 
this will bo a material departure from the 
policy of the (government during the last 
six years, it may be that it will be regard- 
ed in certain quarters of the Union, and 
by certain public functionaries, as revolu- 
tionary in its character, and justifying re- 
bellion. That, however, is a question 1 do 
not propose now to discuss; though candor 
compels me to admit, that it is a more se- 
rious abridgement of the powers hitherto 
exercised by certain portions of the Union, 



than any which result from the other griev- 
ances which have been examined. 

It is not needful to joursue this exami- 
nation farther. Every man can see that is 
willing to see, from what source the threats 
of disunion do not spring. Other grounds 
must be explored in order to find the 
source from which they do proceid; and 
unhappily, it is not far wo shall have to go 
to find them. 

It belongs to the philosopher to enquire, 
and it may not be unworthy of the States- 
man to join in the enquiry, whether a long 
course of peaceful administration, so con- 
ducted as to cause a constant cultivation 
of the fraternal feelings and reasoning 
powers of all the membei's of the body po- 
litic, will not tend to the transmission of 
these peaceful qualities from generation to 
generation. If there is any considarable 
degree of truth in the foregoing intimation 
— and I am strongly of opinion that a dili- 
gent enquiry into facts' would go far to- 
wards establishing it as a solid and im- 
pregnable truth — then indeed, a key is 
placd in the hands of the Statesman, where- 
with he may unlock the mysteries of the 
present imbroglio, and command, or, at 
the least, powerfully influence the desti- 
nies of the future. For insolence and a 
lust of unjust and desjjotic power, haye a 
place, also, deeper, or more patent, in 
every heart; and if fostered and stimula- 
ted, by a government, or by a state of so- 
ciety constantly operating in that behalf, 
they must augment from generation to ge- 
neration, until they culminate in destruc- 
tion at last — unless indeed some strong 
and rightful hand shall arrest the madness 
in its course, and stay it there until reason 
shall have time to bring the patient home. 

Looking to the constitution of society 
in the Southern States — Looking at their 
long and despotic control of the General 
Government — Looking at the political 
causes assigned for their dissatisfaction, 
and seeing their insufficiency — Looking to 
the moral causes that have been pointed 
out, and seeing their sufficiency, — the gov- 
erning power of the United States must 
come to say, that they do understand the 
causes upon which threats of disunion rest, 
and must now proceed to consider, and so 
far as is needful to declare, the remedy 
which their duty enjoins them to apply. 

Conscious of the uprightness of their in- 
tentions — Conscious of the forbearance 
that is due to errors of opinion — mindful 
of the cardinal principle upon which re- 
publican governments rest, that the ma- 
jority must bear rule, as well as of the hu- 
mane qualification of that rule, that the 
just rights of minorities should be consider- 
ed and respected, the governing power of 



1 



the United States approach the execution 
of their duty, with n firm reliance upon 
the soundness of their judgment, — con- 
scious <also, that that judgement is temper- 
ed by benignity. Guided — Influenced— 
controlled by these just principles, thev 
are now about to execute that judgment 
upon the offending members of the^Bodv 
Politic. 

Their power in this regard, is derived 
from the Constitution of the United States 
a,nd the laws made in pursuance thereof 
Their instrument, m the first instance, is 
the President of the United States. — But 
the President of the United States, in exe- 
cuting, as the instrument of the governing 
majoritj--, their judgments upon the offend- 
ing members of the Body Politic, must be 
sustained and upheld, by the wisdom, the 
firmness, the supjjort, moral, and if need 
be material, of that governing majority. 
AVithout it, his attempts at the perform- 
ances of duty, will lack the dignity and 
the strength, essential to the attainment 
of the just objects of its performance. 
"With that support, no power in the State 
— no combinations against the State, can 
i^tand between him and the performance 
of his duty ; and, in the inter«?st of humani- 
ty, it ought to be beforehand known, whe- 
ther the President shall have that firm 
and unfaltering support of the governing 
power or not. For, in the history of the 
world, has it ever yet been known, that 
truth and justice, upheld by wisdom, and 
supported by might, succumbed to error 
and wrong, supported by weakness only? 
Truth and justice, indeed, however wea"k, 
may triumph over oppression and error, 
however strong; and error, upheld bv 
overpowering strength may also triumph 
for a time; but error not so upheld, can 
triumph never! If then, the President of 
the United States, presents himself to the 
people of the U. States, borne to that high 
station upon the judgments of the govern- 
ing power of the United States, and up- 
held there by the firmness of that j/overn- 
ing power, as the executor of their judg- 
ments upon dl who resist their sovereignty, 
— those judgments being just, ?nd that so- 
vereignty being rightful,— is it not in the 
interst of humanity to say, that such judg- 
ments and sovereignty wnll not be resisted, 
because, in the first place they ought not 
to be, and in the second place, because they 
cannot be? But the Constitution of the 
United States has not alone conferred the 
power of upholding the sovereignty, and 
executing the just decrees of the govern- 
ing power of the Union, but it has also 
through the enactments of Congress in aid 
and furtherance of the powers conferred, 
■provided the means for carrying those de- 



crees into effect. And here 1 stand ama- 
zed, not that the President of the United 
States in his last message to Congress, 
should have untruly stated, as he has done, 
the powers conferred upon the governing 
majority to execute their just decrees, t» 
the destruction of those powers, and to the 
utter prostration of the Constitution and 
the Union, if his statement of them had 
been true; but that it should have been left 
to me, a humble citizen of a distant State, 
to notify the American people of this high 
official treachery, and to point out "to 
them the true power which it has been 
the effort of that treachery to conceal. — 
The statement of the President in his mes- 
sage is, "That the only acts of Congress on 
the Statute book, bearing on this subject 
are, those of the 28th of Februarv, 1795, 
and 3d of March, 1807. The.se authorize 
the President, after he shall have ascertain- 
ed that the marshal, with his posse comita- 
tus, is unable to execute civil or criminal 
process, in any particular case, to call forth 
the militia, and employ the army and na- 
vy, to aid him in performing the service, 
having first by j^roclamation commanded 
the insurgents to disperse and return 
peaceably to their resjDective abodes with- 
in a limited time." 

If the purport of these laws had been 
truly stated, then, indeed, would the pow- 
er of the governing majority, through 
their instrument, the President of the 
United States, have been impotent for the 
preservation of the Union. Whosoever 
would, if he could resist a marshal, might 
dissolve it at his pleasure. Unless, in- 
deed, it could be maintained that the duty 
of the President, to take care that the 
laws be faithfully executed, springing di- 
rectly from the Constitution itself,"and his 
office of commander-in-chief of the army 
and navy of the United States, springing 
also directly from the Constitution, could 
be coupled with the former, as the consti- 
tutional means of executing the constitu- 
tional duty, and so dispense with the ne- 
cessity of an act of Congress on the sub- 
ject. But no American statesman, so far 
as I know, has ever yet advanced such a 
proposition, or intimated that such a one 
could be maintained. It is not I that 
should say it cannot be supported, al- 
though hithert© never advanced, or that it 
can be. Such a proposition, certainly, is 
not within the purview of the message of 
the President. And now, let me exhibit 
to the American neople, the laws that 
have been falsified by their hishest execu- 
tive officer. That of the 28th February, 
1795, is as follows: " That whenever the 
L.\ws OF THE UxiTED States" (uot the pro- 
cess of the marshals) "shall be opposed, or 



the execution tiiereoi' ohstuuctkd in any 
State, by comijixatioxs too powerful to be 
suppressed by the ordinary course of judi- 
cial proceedings, or by the powers vested 
in the marshals by this act, it shall be law- 
ful for the President to call forth the mili- 
tia of such State, oR oi'" axy other State or 
Statks, as may be necessary to suppress 
sucii combinations, and to cause the laws (o 
be dull/ cxicuted, and the use of such militia 
may be continued until thirty days after 
fhe commencement of the then next ses- 
sion of Congress." — [Dunlap's Statutes, p. 
147.] The act of the 3d of March, 1807, 
authorizes the President to use the army 
and navy of the United States, for the 
same purjjoses that he is authorized to call 
forth the militia to accomplish in the fore- 
going act. And the Supreme Court of the 
United States have decided (12 Wheatoa, 
19-29,) "That the President of the United 
States is the exclusive judge of the exi- 
gency for so calling forth the militia,and em- 
ploying the army and navy of the United 
States." Here is a power given, a duty 
enjoined, and the means of executing that 
duty provided — xot to execute a marshal's 
process only, but to overcome ALL oin'osT- 
Tiox or obstructiox to the laws of the 
United States by comeinatioxs too power- 
ful to be suppressed by the ordinary 
course of judicial pi'oceeding. Here are 
ample means provided to enable the go- 
verning majority to carry all their just and 
lawful decrees into effect, and to overcome 
all opposition or obstruction thereto by 
the combinations or force of whatever fac- 
tious or evil disposed minority. And the 
President of the United States, backed by 
the army and navy of the United States, 
and with an unlimited power of call upon 
the militia of the whole Union, is the 
sworn executor of those decrees. There is 
another disingeuuousness on the part of 
the President, in his late message, that 
ought not to remain unexposed. It is an 
attempt to wrest, untruly, the authority of 
the Father* who framed the Constitution, 
to a nullification of the vital force of that 
instrument. The language of Mr. Madi- 
son, in debate on the 31st of May, 1787, is 
stated by the Pi'esident to have been used, 
" when the case authorizing the Executive 
to use the force of the whole against a de- 
linquent State came up for consideration." 
This is true. And it is also true that he 
used the language imputed to him. But 
in the next sentence he used this other 
language as well, "That he hojied that 
such a system would be framed as would 
render this recource unnecessary." And 
now, upon inspecting the proeeedings of 
the 8th of June, also referred to by the 
President, and the proposition in support 



of which Mr. Madison used the language 
imputed to him on that day, directly the 
opposite proi^osition, namely, " A clause 
giving the National Legislature a negative 
on such lav.'s of the States as might be 
contrary to the Articles of Union, or trea- 
ties with i'oreign nations," is found to be 
the case under consideration, and to have 
been treated and supported by Mr. Madi- 
son as a substitute for the force clause 
which he deprecated, maintaining at the 
same time, that the force chiuso was the 
only alternative, if the negative, which ho 
was supporting, should not be adopted. — 
To show that tliis is so, I will transcribe a 
few sentences, as used by Mr. Madison im- 
mediately preceding the sentence ascribed 
to him by the President, and one sentence 
following it. He said: " He could not but 
regard an indefinite power to negative le- 
gislative acts of the States, as absolutely 
necessary to a perfect system. Experience 
had evinced a constant tendency in the 
States to encroach on tlie Federal autho- 
rity; to violate national treaties; to in- 
fringe^ the rights and interests of each 
other: to oppress the weaker party 
within their respective jurisdictions. — 
A negative was the mildest expedient that 
could be devised to prevent these mis- 
chiefs. The existence of such a check 
would prevent attempts to commit them. 
Should no such precaution be engrafted, 
the only remedy wocld i;e ax appeal to 
coERciox. Was such a remedy eligible ? 
was it practicable? Could the national 
resources, if exerted to the utmost, en- 
force a national decree against Massachu- 
setts, abetted, perhaps, by several of her 
neighbors? It would not be possible. A 
small proportion of the community, in a 
compact situation, acting on the defensive, 
and at one of its extremities, miglit at 
any time bid defiance to the national au- 
thority — 'Any Government of the United 
State:^, lormed on the supposed practica- 
bility of using force agcxinst the unconsti- 
tutional proceedings of the States, would 
prove as visionary and fallacious as the 
government of Congress. — The negative 

WOULD RENDER THE VFE OF FORCE UNNECESSA- 
RY." ' That was the language of Mr. Madi- 
son ; and such were the circumstances 
and propositions under which, and upon 
which he used it. By wrenching the sen- 
tences used from their context — by sup- 
pressing those circumstances, and the oth- 
er language used by Mr. Madison in the 
same context, and by untruly stating one 
of the proijositions in reference to wliicli 
the sentences quoted by him were used, 
the iDresident has disingenuously attempted 
to make it appear, that Mr. Madison en- 
tertained opinions upon the subject in 



6 



question directly contrai-y from those 
tliat are fairly deducible from liis argu- 
ment, when thus fully and fairly stated. — 
What was the argument of Mr. Madison, 
fairly stated? It was, that a control by the 
general government, over such action and 
legislation, by the several States, as should 
be hostile to the just rights and powers of 
the general Government, was necessary to 
be vested in the general government in 
some form, in order to its self preserva- 
tion. 

The choice in the mode rested between 
the employmeut of tlie negative which he 
advocated, or the employment of coercion 
— one or the other would have to be used, 
and in order to induce the convention to 
prefer the negative, he pointed out the in- 
conveniences and evils that would arise, 
by substituting coercion for the negative. 
The Convention did refuse to adopt the 
negative, advocated by Mr. Madison, and 
did ordain that the President of the Uni- 
ted States should cause the laws of the 
United States to be executed, and confer- 
red upon him the office of Commander-in- 
Chief of the army and navy of the Unit- 
ed States, and of the militia that should 
be called into their service. And now, is 
it difficult to understand whither the ar- 
gument of Mr. Madison tends ? Is it dif- 
hcult to determine, whether the President 
in his message has disingenuously pervert- 
ed the authority of his great name for an 
unworthy purpose — the purpose, to wit: 
of paralyzing the arm of the governing 
l^ower of the American people, to the pre- 
vention of their execution of their just 
deci'ees upon the delinquent individuals 
and delinquent States, who already threa- 
ten to resist their lawful sovereignty ? It 
is not the first time in the history of the 
world, that faction, stimulated by unwor- 
thy ambition, has raised its arm against 
the lawful exercise of sovereign power. 
If that factious arm is allowed to strike 
unresisted— nay, unsubdued, the State is 
no more, and the problem of man's capa- 
city for self government is solved forever. 

My fellow-citizens, you have patiently 
examined the grievances of these men, 
and you find them uufounded. You have 
carefully inspected their motives, and you 
find them unworthy. You have examined 
yovu' own duties, and you find them not 
doubtful — you have examined your powers 
and you find they are ample. You have 
examined the means for accomplishing 
your duty, and you find, whether of a 
moral or material kind, they are not want- 
ing. Trutli, reason, all due forbearance, 
remembering that these men are your 
brothers, are the one — the others I need 
■lot name. If yet they have aught to say. 



fit to be heard in the presence of reason 
and justice, you pause to hear, and wili 
weigh it well. When all is said, and the 
hour shall come, if come it must, when 
the rod of chastisement must descend up- 
on the bacivs of your offending brothers, I 
implore you, I warn you, before and above 
all else to remember, that it is upon your- 
selves alone that you must rely. The 
wisdom, and the firmness of C(5ngrcs3 
have been weighed in the balance and 
found wanting. Not once, but again, and 
again, has their weakness and folly betray- 
ed your offending brothers to the .sedition 
that has so long been uttered by their lips, 
and is but too surely conducting them 
now to the fate that all governments have 
appointed for those who are disloyal to 
their country. Not with Congress — do 
you not see it? — not with Congress, but 
with yourselves alone, rests the chance 
and the charge of averting, as well as con- 
trolling the impending catastrophe. From 
the plains of the South, a million of eyes 
are scanning the countenances of the free- 
men of the North. Is fear, or doubt, or 
hesitation to be. discovered there? Then 
all is over — lay down the rod for you are 
not equal to bear it. Then, if the cata.s- 
trophe comes, it will come with all its hor- 
rors. But if all men see that you coun- 
tenance is firm, and your arm is steady, — 
that while the rod is in the right hand, 
the olive branch is in the left — that you 
bear upon your breasts no shield but the 
Constitution of your country, with the 
names of Washington, Franklin and Mad- 
ison burning and flaming there, and yet 
not consuming, (for patriot fire does not 
consume), will they strike through that 
flame, that parchment, to reach their bro- 
thers' hearts that beat behind it? 

Your President in office has betrayed 
you. His counsellors are traitors some, 
unworthy all. Your Congress does not re- 
present your wisdom, if your wisdom is 
equal to you exigencies, nor your strength, 
if an exertion of that shall be demanded 
by the crisis. 

To sustain your Pi'esident elect, in the 
maintenance of your rightful sovereigntv, 
it is not on the means that Congress may 
provide, that you can rely. The men and 
their fortunes, the States and their re- 
sources, that constitute the rightful sove- 
reignty of the Union, must stand forth, 
and by the wisdom of their counsels, the 
might of their arms, and the amplitude of 
their resources, let all men know that the 
majesty of truth embodied in the'right- 
ful decrees of the governing power is up- 
held by the majesty of their sovereignty 
embodied in the persons of all the citi- 
zens, and the right of all the States, which 



I 



compose that governing power. Can error 
and faction confront truth and law thus 
worthily upborne? If truth, indeed, bo 
more mighty than the sword, — if it can 
reach hearts that the steel cannot pene- 
trate, or if it penetrate cannot subdue, it 
is only when that weapon as well as the 
sword, is wortliily borne, by hands that 
are strong, by hearts that are loyal, and 
by the wisdom of those who are wisest 
.imiong men, that it can attain its rightful 
Vonquests. 

■~<)ne lesson more mankind yet owe to 
humanity — henceforth let mankind know 
everywhere, that the wisdom and the 
strength of the governing power is supe- 
rioi- to the wisdom and the strength of the 
tribunals they have created, and the sei - 
vants they have appointed to execute their 
sovereignty. Not so have mankind yet 
been taught. Not so have Statemen yet 
believed. Let not your censure descend 
upon the teacher — leu tht; statesman pass 
on his way and learn as he walks. It was 
not until to-day that history had prepared 
the page upon which that great truth 
could be written. Its leaves are events, 
and the event of to-day had not come be- 
fore. People of the United States! the 
pen is in your hand, and whether you will 
or no, that page must now be written. 
Forever and aye! forever when written 
it will there remain. Are these the dread 
words that shall be written there ? " The 
people of the United States trusted to the 
wisdom of their tribunals and their ser- 
vants, and the weakness and the folly of 
their tribunals and their servants betray- 
ed them. Then war came, which the wis- 
dom and the firmness of their tribunals 
and their servants might have averted and 
did not, and lo! that people are no more !" 
Or shall it be these other words more wor- 
thy of mankind to utter, and full worthy 
for freemen to maintain : The wisdom and 
the strength of the State, is in the govern- 
ing power. When the tribunals and the 
magistrates they have ordained as the ?x- 
ecutors of their sovereignty, are unfeith- 
ful or unequal to the execution of their 
trust, the governing power will sit in judg- 
ment alike upon their servants and their 
trusts, and in the majesty of their collec- 
tive strength, and collected wisdom, pro- 
ceed to execute the decrees, that they, in 
the exercise of their rightful sovereignty, 
have pronounced. 

Are these the words, the principles that 
a people capable of governing themselves 
are bound to maintain ? Is this the truth 
that you are about to inscribe upon the 
parchment that is spread out to receive its 
record forever? Then all is well ; and the 
watchman whom you have just mounted 



as the guard to the Constitution of your 
country, as he paces to and fro in the dis- 
charge of his high duty, may well re-echo 
the welcome words, that all is well. But 
if these words are indeed to be thus in- 
scribed, hasten to place them there. Ere 
the ink upon the record is dry, each word 
recorded there, and more, much more bu- 

j side, may be a deed. Linger not to turn 
back those weighty pages now, but turn 

: to confront the danger that is behind you. 

'. You are ready ? then all is well. A dan- 
ger well surveyed, and fully comprehend- 

: ed, is already more than half overcome. 

Again, then, I say, in the interest of hu- 
manity as well as in the interest of your 
own honor, and in the interest of all man- 

. kind, involved in the questiow you are 
now proceeding to decide — the capacity of 
man to govern himself — survey and com- 
prehend the danger well — survey and 
comprehend your powers, your duties, 
your means, and the mode in which they 
should be applied to avert, or to overcome 
the impending catastrophe. Do you con- 
fide in the wisdom, the firmness, the in- 
tegrity, the energy of the eminent citizpa, 
in whose hands you have just placed, to 
guard, protect and defend, from wiiacso- 
ever hostile or treacherous attack or cir- 
cumvention, the constitution of your 
country ? That constitution is the su- 
preme decree of the governing power of 
this land. Ordained in ancient days by 
venerable men, revered as you revere it, 
for its origin, for its wisdom, for its benig- 
nity, for the unequalled greatness to which 
its wisdom and its benignity has so swiftly 
conducted you, shall that supreme decree 
be upheld and maintained in the hands of 
him to whom you have just confided it, 
against whatsoever and whomsoever, and 
from wheresoever it or they may come, 
that seek to harm, im2:)air or destroy it ? 
Will you longer allow disloyal hands to 
soil it in the handling? Have you, the go- 
verning power of this land, pronounced 
your judgment on that question? Will 
you cause that judgment to be respected 
and obeyed? Will you give; all vvliom it 
may concern to know, tliat so it shall be ? 
Will you give all whom it may concern to 
know, that howsoever Congress, or any 
other tribunal you have ordained, shall be 
faithless or incompetent to the trust you 
have reposed in them, you, the rightful 
governing power ©f this land, have the 
power, and are not ignorant ol' the means 
of executing your rightful decrees, supreme 
or subordidate, and yet in harmony with 
the laws, and with the just riglits of all? 
That your sovereignty s'lall b© respected, 
your rightful laws bo obeyed, and that you 
will uphold the instrument ^f your sove- 



reignty — so constituted by the ^nr>rrn..:' voii — imt - ;;,- ii.ii:\— . : am iirr-i— ' 
decree he is iiony called on to 
his execution of all your ri^-ii 
ments ? 

If it be true that the spirit of mn-: 
in the future, as it s' 
then, men of to-day ! t ! 
are fastened upon you! 
mankind, involved in tli 
man's capacity f ; 
honor of your f;i' 
vital force of tlie ■ 
ed on to uphold— 
dicating your wi-^ 
uphold, the char; 
to your haiiiK ■ 
Tou must noir 
make. — And 1. , .,. . ,,,. . .^ ... ., . -i.n , ..i 



'C 











s-.'f' 



,0 -r. 



■^ 






4> O 









* " ■'^j-i^'^ 





■.r<^ 












V co\ci^.> ./.-^^'X c,°*,-i.i^.*°o 



•*b 



v..*' 



^0 







